Buñelos Aga’ is a CHamoru dessert which means banana donuts. These would be at many CHamoru fiestas and it is definitely one of my favorite foods to eat back home on Guam. I only started making buñelos for myself when I first moved to Boston and I think I mastered it! I got my recipe from Annie’s Chamorro Kitchen, and she not only has the recipe for these delicious bite-sized desserts, but other CHamoru food, too. I am trying to immerse myself into cooking food from back home so it could make college feel a little more like home, too.
The recipe calls for:
- 2 cups of mashed bananas (4 ripe bananas)
- 1 cup of flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 4 tablespoons of sugar
- 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract (imitation vanilla extract works just as well)
- Oil for flying (I use canola oil, but vegetable oil is specified in the recipe)
- Pinch of salt
When I make these in the communal kitchen in the dorms, I always invite my friends to join me and to jam to music I’d listen to back home. After I make them, I always get such good feedback. The fact that I am able to create and share a part of home to my friends here means so much to me. Because I am so far from Guam, stuff like this makes me feel closer.
My friends absolutely eat it up when I make them, literally. Sequoia Pilgrim said, “My first impression was great. I didn’t know what to expect because I have never had one before, but after taking the first bite I thought it was delicious, it was sweet but not too sweet and they were puffy and soft.”
Jayden Lopez said they had a “crispy, light banana flavor” and he would “eat them every day if allowed.”
It really warms my heart when my friends enjoy my cooking from home. In a way, it brings me closer to home and closer to them, too.
Making buñelos aga’ in Boston is definitely different from back home, but not in a bad way. The love still fills the kitchen with the smell of the gentle sweet of the bananas the same way it does on Guam. I look forward to making more of these as well as trying out more recipes. If you decide to give these a try, I hope they are as addictive as they seem! Enjoy!